The Polar Bear versus the Beast
AFEW hours before the England squad took the coach ride to Heathrow for their flight to South Africa, Dan Cole was shown the video clip of his next opponent which has become an internet sensation.
The Leicester prop watched a remarkable display of strength by Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira, South Africa’s formidable Zimbabwe-born loosehead, with more interest than most, given that the pair will collide at King’s Park tomorrow.
As befitting a young but decidedly old-school front-row forward, Cole does not indulge in hyperbole, but there was a trace of awe as he described his Springbok rival’s actions in the colours of the Sharks.
“Mouritz Botha showed me the video,” said the 25-year-old.
“It’s a single-man lift from behind and the guy he’s lifting takes the ball but falls back. The Beast just keeps hold of him in the air – one of their (Sharks’) second rows, a pretty big lump (Anton Bresler), so it’s an impressive feat of strength.”
Asked if he has ever pulled off such a trick, he added: “No, I wish! I think my shoulders would probably dislocate if I tried.”
When Cole tangles with Mtawarira in the first Test, it will be a meeting of nearequals. Both men are in their mid-twenties and the hosts’ No 1 has 32 caps to his English challenger’s 28 – from the national team’s last 29 capped matches.
Yet, the Beast has certain advantages. He will be on home territory in the stadium known as the “Shark Tank” where he is revered as a cult figure.
What’s more, his nickname carries a sense of menace, unlike that of the Tigers tighthead. “I don’t have a nickname, no…” said Cole at first, squirming with embarrassment.
“Well, there is a nickname bandied about… it doesn’t sound as menacing as the Beast anyway. It’s a large Arctic creature. Polar Bear! Fur as white as my skin…”
So there it is: a curious clash of creatures in an unlikely set- ting by the Indian Ocean – Beast v Polar Bear. In reference to his opponent, Cole added: “He’s a very good player, a strong lad and he carries as well.”
Cole is the first English prop to face the Beast at King’s Park since the latter dismantled Phil Vickery in the Lions series opener there in 2009.
While Vickery – the Raging Bull, to maintain the nickname theme – gained redemption by turning the tables in the third Test, Mtawarira’s dominance in Durban marked him out as a major set-piece force.
Three years on, that brutal scrummaging performance will focus Cole’s mind.
“I was on a Saxons tour in Denver, so I didn’t see that game live,” he said. “I saw a rerun. You don’t see that (dominance) every day – either in the Premiership or at Test level.
“I played against him at Twickenham in 2010 and I would say it was about 50-50 between us that day.
“The thing that stands out for me from that game was not so much the scrums, but just the physical nature of the Springbok pack.
“They had just lost to Scotland, so they went back to their Plan A and just battered us, basically.”
South Africa’s new coach, Heyneke Meyer, spent six months in charge at Leicester in 2008 and in that time he accelerated Cole’s emergence in the Tigers’ first team, as well as encouraging the rise of other rookies such as Ben Youngs.
That brief exposure to Meyer’s methods has left Cole in no doubt about what awaits England.
“He likes to play a simple, but physically dominant game,” he said. “It’s about big runners winning one-on-one
Born: collisions and if you win a penalty, you kick your goals. Meyer’s teams want to bludgeon you to death.”
If that doesn’t sound like a particularly enticing prospect for any of Stuart Lancaster’s players, the front row will, as ever, find themselves at the sharp end of the confrontations. Cole believes the tourists can prosper by using the skills and tricks drilled into them at their clubs and by forwards coach, Graham Rowntree.
“The South African forwards are big, macho men,” said Cole, who knows this scrum battle will be as arduous as anything England faced during the Six Nations.
“They are probably not the most technical side, but that’s probably because they almost don’t need to be. They have the mentality that they want to use the scrum as a weapon.
“They are huge men who want to dominate the scrum and build their physical supremacy from that. We have to be technically superior.” – Daily Mail